posted on March 11, 2003 07:43:21 PM new
I received this in an E-mail this evening. I didn't check it's authenticity. It doesn't make a difference who wrote it. It's what I've thought and said all along.
Amen,
Thank You Dan Ouimette,
Reverend Colin
U.S. Navy Capt. Ouimette is the XO of NAS, Pensacola. Here is a copy of
the speech he gave earlier this month. A wonderful and accurate account of
why we are in trouble today.
+++++++++++++++
America WAKE UP!
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 and maybe it
was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the
alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the
snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since
then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a
religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked
and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright
attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most
powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign US
embassy set the stage for the events to follow for the next 23 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet Nam experience
and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter,
had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert.
The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's
inability to deal with terrorism. America's military had been decimated and
downsized / right sized since the end of the Viet Nam war. A poorly
trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a
complex mission that was doomed from the start.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnaped and
killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her
citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into
the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people.
The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more. Then
just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500
pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps
headquarters in Beirut. 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her
dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. Two months later in December
1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in
Kuwait, and America continues her slumber. The following year, in September 1984,
another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and
America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in
a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. Then in August a Volkswagen
loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base
at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the Snooze Alarm is buzzing louder and
louder as US soil is continually attacked. Fifty-nine days later a cruise
ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a
wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed. The
terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA
Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan
Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259. America wants to
treat these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring
these people to trial. These are acts of war...the Wake Up alarm is louder
and louder.
The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993,
two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in
Langley, Virginia. The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are
arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the
underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six
people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not
an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.
Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. A few months later
in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US
military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers,
a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500.
The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America
does not respond decisively. They move to coordinate their attacks in a
simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These
attacks were planned with precision, they kill 224. America responds with cruise
missile attacks and goes back to sleep.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12
October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded
killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but
we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans
think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong
they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose
to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high
official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But
if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see
exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the
National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since
1979. The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I
think we have been in a war for the past 23 years and it will continue until
we as a people decide enough is enough.
America has to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has
changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the
sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to hit the Snooze
Button again and roll over and go back to sleep. We have to make the
terrorists know that in the words of Admiral Yamamoto after the attack on
Pearl Harbor "that all they have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."
Thanks for posting that. It really hits home that we really never did anything about those terrorist events. We HAVE to this time or the barbarians will crash the gate.
posted on March 11, 2003 07:56:27 PM new
Why doesn't he mention the bombing of the Murrah Building in April 1995 in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people?
You have the right to an informed opinion -Harlan Ellison
